Stalls at the Donmar Warehouse
Rows A to D, and the level to book. Four rows is the whole of it. The stage floor sits below your knees, so an actor working downstage has their feet at about your knee and you look up at them from a few feet away. The level is so intimate that you really do feel like you're truly engaging with the performers.
The seats are benches
Padded on the seat and on the back, and continuous, with no arm rests. You sit closer to the person next to you than you would in an ordinary theatre seat. The Circle upstairs is different: individual fold-down seats, also padded.
Row A
The front row, and the shortest one in the theatre, with the centre block running from seat 16 to seat 27. You are on top of the action, or the action is right on top of you.
Legroom here suits you up to about 5ft 6. Four seats are worse than the rest: A7, A16, A27 and A34 sit beside a step down into the row, which takes the space in front of one leg to nothing unless you are happy resting a foot on the step for the whole show.
Row B
Staggered against row A, so you are looking between the heads in front rather than at them. Legroom is a little better than row A.
Row C
This is the row you walk in at. Everything else in the Stalls is reached from here: two steps down to row A, one step down to row B, one step up to row D. There are no handrails on any of them, so take it steadily, particularly on the way back up in the dark.
Row D
The widest row in the Stalls, and it starts at seat 2 rather than seat 1. Furthest back in the Stalls still means four rows from the stage.
Under the Circle
The Circle sits over the back of the Stalls from row C. In row C you notice it only when a production hangs its lighting low. In row D it takes the very top of the set, and that is as far as it goes. The playing area here is low and close, so what the overhang takes is height rather than action.
The ends of the rows
Seats 1 to 3 at one end and 37 to 42 at the other are the ends of the wrap, and they are where the theatre's own side-view flag tends to land. On a three-sided stage the seats furthest round see the backs of the actors for part of the evening. A few seats in from the corner and that stops being true.
Actors use the Stalls aisles to get on and off, so an aisle seat puts the show within touching distance and also puts you next to a walkway.
Getting down here
The Stalls are on the first floor, one flight up from the foyer, and the lift serves it. The bar for this level is on the same floor, so you do not have to move levels at the interval.
Stalls FAQs
Which are the best seats in the Stalls at the Donmar Warehouse?
The centre block of rows B and C, which is seats in the teens and twenties. You are square on to the stage, clear of the ends of the wrap, and row B is staggered against row A so nobody is directly in front of you. Then check the plan for your performance in case the staging takes something out.
Are the side seats in the Stalls restricted?
Not usually flagged as such, and not always a problem. The theatre marks only the far ends of the wrap, seats 1 to 3 and 37 to 42, as side view. Everything between them and the centre sees the stage from an angle, which on a three-sided stage means a share of the evening spent looking at backs. It is a close seat at a lower price, and the wrong seat for a production that plays mostly one way.
What are the Stalls seats like at the Donmar Warehouse?
Benches, padded on the seat and the back, with no arm rests, so you are shoulder to shoulder with whoever you are sitting next to. Row A suits you up to about 5ft 6. If you would rather have a seat to yourself, that is the Circle.